Monday, December 31, 2012

Coat and purse hangers are only two of the thousands of projects a person could dive into with thread spools. I remember seeing thread spool ornaments in JoAnn Fabric and a few blogs with repurposed vintage thread spool projects so I decided it was time to dwindle the inventory and add a touch of my hobby to the Christmas decor:

This project I liked because I could also use some of the old jewelry I had from the brooch bouquet I made for the wedding. Of course, mine didn't come out nearly as cute but it was still fun.
Thanks, Brookelynn Morris!

Other thread spool ornaments using scrapbook paper and embellishments:

I really wanted to make something functional for my sister-in-law who was having her third child. In a search for ideas, I found a tutorial for a binky leash on the Sew4Home site and a cute gift idea for baby items folded and placed like sushi from the Creative Dollar blog.

The Creative Dollar uses rubber bands and trash bags as the seaweed wrap for the sushi but I liked the idea of using the handmade binky leashes. To wrap the sushi rolls, I used the ribbon that came with the wash clothes and fish toy.

I find that I generally keep every piece of scrap fabric because they come in handy for little projects. I came across this great tutorial from the Sew WE Quilt blog to create a functional item using even the smallest piece of scrap fabric.

Since I have a lot of Christmas fabric, I used the larger pieces to make a larger coffee table mug rug for the holiday season.

My husband enjoyed it so much that I made him a smaller one for his desk:

This was a Christmas of car organizers, make-up brush rolls and travel accessories. These easy ideas came from the Sew4Home website. I LOVE this site, full of great ideas for nearly every aspect of your life.

Mom starts thinking about party favors in July and this year we decided on ice cream ornaments. I looked at several styles of handmade ornaments and decided to use this idea from the Icing Designs blog. The end result was a quick and cute holiday ice cream ornament.